Katsina: Bombed children carried bomb as they think is a canned goods

Katsina: Bombed children carried bomb as they think is a canned goods.

The Katsina state government says it has received reports of the death of a seventh girl in a suspected bomb blast on a farm in Yanmama village of Malumfashi Local Government Area.

A special assistant to the state governor, Muhammadu Garba, told the BBC that at first six children died, only to be reported dead later.

"It will be brought together now. Seven of them will be buried. There are at least five in the hospital being treated," he said.

This is the first time such an explosion has been reported in the state, which has been plagued by rioting, which has exacerbated fears of an escalation.

The Katsina State Police Command said explosives experts had already been dispatched to investigate the matter.

Muhammadu Garba said the children had gone to the farm to grow grass. "Then they picked up a heavy object, took it with the intention of opening it, to see what it was."

He said some of the children had persuaded their other friends that what they had found was a "bomb". While others said it was not a bomb.

Authorities have not commented on the cause of the blast. Also, there is no information on how the bomb went to this farm.

As people continue to question whether it was an improvised explosive device, or whether it was thrown by someone in the garden on the side of the road.

According to Muhammadu Garba, the woman in the farm with the children who picked up the explosives assured the security agents that what they saw was definitely more like a grenade shown to her.

He said: "Security officials brought various explosives and showed her if she could witness something similar to what she saw in the hands of children."

The woman, who was rescued by God with her children, instructed her daughter to return the children who had just been bitten, after they returned and said they wanted their belongings, he said.

The mother of the surviving children, whose name has not been released, said she herself expressed doubts when one of the children she was with said it was definitely a "bomb".

In Alhaji Usaini's garden, the eldest son said it was a bomb. And I said you! What kind of bomb, in the field "she said.

She said they had put it back and put it away, and those children were on their way too, and her younger son asked permission to let her pick it up because it was a can.

"I said, 'God, this is not a bomb. Maybe something came out of the passing car. Maybe it's a wire.'

The children heard this and came back and said that they were the ones who got the food, said the woman.

She said they were on their way (she and her children) were far away, when they heard the sound of an explosion. State police spokesman ASP Gambo Isa said five children died instantly after the blast.

He said officers were inside the farm to continue the investigation.